The Times/Eric SchultzThe Hunter Unmanned Aerial Vehicle is pushed back to the hangar past the control tower by the recovery team at Balad Air Base, Iraq Tuesday, on Nov. 6, 2007.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- The Pentagon's main research lab - the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA - is looking for ideas to improve the power of aerial drones by drawing power from the unmanned vehicle's "skin" or exterior.

Redstone Arsenal manages several UAV programs for the U.S. Army, and Huntsville companies are involved in UAV support and research. The Army has steadily invested in UAV systems at Redstone over the past decade.

It's a project that could be beneficial to Huntsville companies, said Jim Huey, a UAV expert and president of Huntsville-based Defense Insights.

"A lot of this type of work is already done here, so this is a tremendous opportunity for Huntsville research work, and one that is generally needed to advance UAV technology. One of the limiting areas of these type of unmanned systems is the time it can fly and how much it weighs," Huey said. "The more power you have the better your instruments, computers and sensors are on board a UAV.

"That means something that does not have a person's life tied to it can do those boring and sometimes dangerous jobs for humans. It can save lives. It will also save money in the long run in training and other areas."

However, DARPA managers don't want to just slap a few solar cells on the wings of an aircraft. A key goal is to find ways to incorporate new materials into a wing's structure, or skin, using that to draw the power from the surrounding elements.

"It's the next logical step for unmanned aircraft and probably all types of aircraft. It's all tied to weight. If you can increase power, then you can shift weight or add weight to a vehicle," Huey said.